HON.  SAMUEL  TYLER. 


Born  in   Henniker,  N.  H.,  February  25,   1797. 
Died   in   Portland,  Maine,  January   17,  ^879. 


UCSB  LIBRARY 


A  MEMORIAL  SERVICE 


HELD   AT   THE 


FEBRUARY    20,    1879. 


EXERCISES. 

Introductory  Remarks E.  B.  BEAN. 

Prayer Rev.  C.  H.  SMITH. 

Address Rev.  E.  S.  JORDAN. 

Resolutions..  ..S.  B.  BEAN. 


LEWISTON  I 

PRINTED    AT    THE   JOURNAL    OFFICE. 

l879. 


ADDRESS. 


It  is  eminently  fitting,  when  a  man  like  SAMUEL  TYLEK, 
whose  history  and  interests  for  fourscore  years  were  so 
closely  allied  with  this  town,  is  removed  by  death,  that  the 
citizens  should  unite  in  some  expression  of  their  sense  of  his 
high  merit  and  of  their  own  great  loss. 

Having  met,  with  this  object  in  view,  it  seems  appropriate 
to  pass  in  review  some  of  the  more  prominent  events  of  his 
life  and  traits  of  his  character.  And  we  wish  to  bear  in 
mind  what,  if  he  could  have  foreseen  our  action,  would  best 
have  accorded  with  his  wishes  in  regard  to  it ;  and  especially 
should  we  avoid  that  grave  offense  to  his  well-known  feel- 
ing, of  indulging  in  indiscriminating  praise. 

In  connection  with  a  service  commemorative,  in  part, 
of  the  philanthropic  relations  of  Mr.  TYLER  to  this  people, 
there  comes  readily  to  our  thought  the  grateful  plea  of  the 
Jewish  elders  in  behalf  of  the  Centurion  who  sent  them  to 
beseech  Christ  for  the  healing  of  his  servant :  "  That  he 
was  worthy  for  whom  He  should  do  this,  for  he  loveth  our 
nation,  and  he  hath  built  us  a  synagogue." 

Little  is  known  of  this  Centurion  beyond  what  is  here 
recorded ;  his  love  for  the  people  among  whom  he  dwelt, 
and  the  proof  he  gave  of  his  interest  in  them  in  building 
for  them  a  house  of  worship.  He  was  not  a  native  of 
Capernaum ;  neither  was  he  to  whom,  with  slight  change, 
the  words  of  the  Jewish  elders  are  applicable  by  us,  a  native 
of  this  town,  though  he  was  brought  here  so  young  that  he 
could  remember,  as  he  desired  to  remember,  no  other  early 
home. 


(     4     ) 

SAMUEL  TYLER  was  born  in  Henniker,  N.  H.,  but  so 
entirely  did  he  regard  himself  a  son  of  Brownfield,  that 
some  of  his  near  relatives  never  heard  him  allude  to  Hen- 
niker as  his  native  place,  and  had  always  supposed,  till  after 
his  decease,  that  this  was  the  place  of  his  birth,  as  well  as 
that  where  he  passed  his  childhood  and  youth,  and  some  of 
his  mature r  years.  His  parents  removed  with  him  to  this 
town  the  year  the  nation  was  in  mourning  for  the  death  of 
its  first  President.  He  would  have  been  eighty-two  years 
of  age  had  he  lived  till  the  twenty-fifth  of  the  present 
month. 

His  opportunities  to  attend  school  during  his  childhood 
were  very  limited,  the  nearest  school-house  being  a  long 
distance  from  his  home.  But  he  early  learned  to  conquer 
difficulties,  and  he  persevered  in  acquiring  the  rudiments  of 
such  branches  of  study  as  were  at  that  time  taught  in  the 
common  schools. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen,  then  a  tall  and  enterprising  lad, 
he  enlisted  as  a  private  soldier  in  the  last  war  with  England. 
He  was  detailed  as  a  personal  attendant  to  Capt.  Rufus  K. 
Goodenow,  also  of  this  town,  with  whom  he  served  out  his 
time  of  one  year.  The  temptations  incident  to  army  life, 
boy  though  he  was,  he  firmly  resisted. 

In  1824  he  married  Miss  Elizabeth  Spring  of  this  town, 
a  lady  loved  and  honored  during  a  long  life,  and  among  a 
wide  circle  of  friends  and  acquaintances,  for  the  sweetness 
of  her  disposition,  and  the  clear  good  sense,  the  fidelity  and 
conscientious  thoroughness  which  she  brought  to  the  per- 
formance of  her  varied  and  responsible  duties. 

This  town  was  their  home  till  1825,  when  what  seemed 
a  favorable  opening,  induced  Mr.  TYLER  to  remove  to  Saco. 
After  a  short  period  of  indifferent  success  he  decided  to  go 
to  Portland.  Here  also  his  hopes  were  disappointed.  Sub- 
sequently he  tried,  I  have  heard  him  say,  more  than  a  dozen 
different  enterprises,  and  abandoned  them  all,  having  prose- 
cuted them,  in  turn,  till  it  became  evident  to  him  that  they 


(    5    ) 

were  unsuited  to  his  tastes  or  habits.  Providence,  "  whose 
footsteps  are  not  known,"  was  leading  him  better  than  he 
knew,  and  suffered  all  his  plans  to  fail  that  the  wiser  divine 
plan  might  take  their  places. 

At  the  age  of  thirty-two  years  he  came  to  a  decision 
which  manifested  at  once  the  breadth  and  the  heroic  temper 
of  his  mind.  It  is  a  trite  saying  that  apparently  slight 
causes  often  bring  about  great  results.  It  was  the  merest 
trifle  that  led  Mr.  TYLER  to  take  the  important  step  of 
seeking,  in  South  America,  a  theatre  for  the  exercise  of 
his  talents  in  acquiring  a  support  for  his  family,  and  in 
building  up  the  modest  fortune  which,  we  have  reason  to 
believe  was,  at  that  time,  the  height  of  his  ambition. 
That  undertaking  has  been  compared,  it  seems  to  me  not 
inaptly,  to  that  of  the  discoverer  of  North  America,  who 
was  induced  to  sail  on  his  first  vo}rage  of  discovery  by  cir- 
cumstances which,  to  an  ordinary  mind,  would  have  seemed 
trivial.  He  had  heard  from  a  relative  that  a  piece  of  curi- 
ously carved  wood  had  been  found  on  the  shore,  where  it 
had  been  washed  by  a  westerly  gale.  An  old  pilot  told  him 
of  having  once  picked  up,  at  sea,  a  carved  paddle,  more 
than  a  thousand  miles  west  of  Portugal.  These  and  other 
similar  facts,  together  with  his  geographical  knowledge, 
led  him  to  the  conclusion  that  there  must  be  land  to  the 
west,  and  to  the  west  he  sailed. 

It  was  a  statement  found  in  an  old  geography,  that  the 
soil  of  the  Argentine  Republic  was,  in  general,  exceedingly 
fertile,  and  that  the  country  abounded  in  herds  and  flocks, 
while  the  inhabitants  were  indolent  and  improvident,  that 
led  this  pioneer  in  a  great  commercial  enterprise  to  believe 
that  a  man  who  was  willing  to  endure  hardship  and  toil, 
might  obtain  a  competence  in  that  distant  land  more  surely 
and  speedily  than  in  the  thronged  avenues  of  business 
activity  in  his  own.  But  it  was  then  practically  an  unknown 
country,  concerning  which  no  one  could  give  him  any 
definite  information.  He  must  go,  if  at  all,  ill-informed  as 


he  was,  committing  himself  to  the  guidance  of  circumstances 
of  the  most  uncertain  character.  He  resolved  to  make  the 
venture,  sustained  in  the  struggle  of  severing  himself  from 
all  he  held  dear — family,  friends,  and  country — we  who 
knew  him  can  well  believe,  by  the  steadfast  purpose  which 
marked  so  conspicuously  his  whole  career,  to  conquer  re- 
bellious fortune  by  nobly  deserving  her  favor. 

When  a  gentleman  of  some  note  as  a  scholar  had  been 
elected  to  the  Presidency  of  a  New  England  college,  and  an 
acquaintance  dissuaded  him  from  accepting  the  position,  ex- 
pressing his  apprehension  that,  constituted  as  he  was,  he 
would  not  succeed  in  it,  his  prompt  reply  was,  "  I  will 
succeed."  We  can,  without  difficulty,  fancy  this  penniless, 
solitary  stranger,  as,  fifty  years  ago  for  the  first  time  he 
walked  the  streets  of  Buenos  Ayres,  fortifying  his  heart  in 
-  the  face  of  difficulties  and  discouragements  with  the  stern 
resolve,  "  I  will  succeed." 

If  the  story  of  what  he  endured,  and  what  he  accom- 
plished, could  be  faithfully  told,  it  would  be  but  another 
illustration  of  the  adage  that  truth  is  stranger  than  fiction. 
On  his  arrival  in  that  strange  city  of  one  hundred  thousand 
inhabitants,  he  found  himself  with  only  half  a  dollar  in 
money,  without  a  friend  or  acquaintance,  and  knowing  no 
word  of  the  language.  After  some  search  and  delay  he  fell 
in  with  a  resident  of  the  city  who  concluded  to  give  him 
employment  at  work  performed  by  peons,  the  lowest  class  of 
laborers,  ranking  little  above  slaves.  But  he  was  glad  to 
engage  in  any  honest  labor  that  would  give  him  a  support. 
He  could  not  turn  back  ;  he  must  open  a  way  forward.  In 
this  employment  he  continued  for  a  considerable  time,  hav- 
ing no  advantage  over  his  humble  fellow-laborers  except  as 
his  superior  intelligence  enabled  him  to  substitute  for  theirs, 
methods  by  which  he  could  perform  more  easily  and  rapidly 
the  same  work. 

We  have  admired  his  commanding  presence,  his  noble 
bearing,  which  would  have  distinguished  him  at  any 


C     7    ) 

European  court.  We  can  picture  him  to  ourselves  as  he 
appeared  among  those  ignorant,  degraded  sons  of  toil,  him- 
self toiling  manfully  with  hand  and  brain,  but  with  what 
different  thoughts,  aspirations,  hopes !  Born  to  lead,  with  a 
taste  that  nothing  could  degrade,  he  found  advantage  in 
circumstances  the  most  unpromising,  and  gathered  tribute 
of  practical  wisdom  from  the  dreariest  experience.  This 
labor  with  peons,  I  have  an  impression,  he  made,  in  the  end, 
an  apprenticeship  to  the  business  from  which,  in  part,  his 
large  fortune  was  realized. 

He  remained  in  the  country,  on  his  first  visit,  between 
three  and  four  years — long  enough  to  lay  the  foundation  of 
the  very  extensive  business  afterwards  carried  on  by  him- 
self and  others  between  Buenos  Ayres  and  the  United 
States.  He  has  been  widely  known  as  the  pioneer  of  the 
South  American  trade,  but  few  were  aware  until  recently 
that  to  him  belonged  the  credit  of  shipping,  nearly  half  a 
century  ago,  the  first  cargo  of  wool  ever  brought  from 
Buenos  Ayres  to  an  American  port. 

This  trade,  so  inaugurated,  has  been,  I  need  scarcely  say, 
a  profitable  one  to  both  countries,  not  to  speak  of  its  ad- 
vantage, as  a  source  of  wealth,  to  Mr.  TYLER  and  to  many 
of  his  friends  and  acquaintances.  He  was  engaged  in  it, 
going  and  returning,  and  transacting  his  large  business,  for 
thirty-three  years — a  period  equal  to  the  life-time  of  a 
generation. 

Sixteen  years  ago  he  went  to  South  America  for  the  last 
time,  having  made  in  all  twelve  voyages ;  Mrs.  Tyler  ac- 
companying him  six  times,  sharing  in  his  inevitable  dangers, 
fatigues,  and  privations,  as  she  ever  did  in  his  varied  and 
abundant  charities. 

Both  these  friends,  as  we  have  proofs  innumerable,  con- 
tinued to  cherish,  in  all  their  changes  and  adventures,  the 
warmest  interest  in  their  own  people.  The  well-being  of 
the  town  which  was  their  early  home  was  a  matter  of  con- 
stant concern  to  them.  Although  no  man  perceived  more 


(     8     ) 

clearly  or  felt  more  keeiily  than  Mr.  TYLER  its  .faults  and 
deficiencies,  yet  no  one  had  its  reputation  and  prosperity 
more  at  heart.  No  sooner  did  he  decide  to  give  up  his 
business  beyond  the  equator,  than  he  arranged  to  carry  out 
what  appears  to  have  been  a  long-entertained  purpose  of 
setting  on  foot  some  scheme  by  which  the  town  could  be 
built  up  and  beautified.  Nor  need  I  do  more  than  call 
attention  to  the  improvements  he  directly  or  indirectly 
caused  to  be  made.  The  village  and  adjacent  neighborhoods 
will  never  lose  the  impress  of  his  taste  and  bounty. 

One  is  reminded  of  the  effect  which  Peter  Bayne  ascribes 
to  the  arrival  of  Howard,  the  philanthropist,  at  the  little 
village  of  Cardington,  which,  he  says,  "  had  been  the  abode 
of  poverty  and  wretchedness,  but  after  Howard  came  to 
reside  in  it,  year  by  year  the  village  of  Cardington  showed 
a  brighter  face  to  the  morning  sun,  year  by  year  you  might 
see  new  and  different  cottages  spring  up,  little  kitchen 
gardens  behind,  little  flower  gardens  before,  neat  palings 
fronting  the  road."  "  The  inhabitants  sent  their  children 
lo  school,  and  Cardington  became  one  of  the  neatest  villages 
of  the  kingdom.  If  you  asked  one  of  the  villagers  to  what 
or  whom  it  owed  all  this,  the  answer  would  have  beent  John 
Howard." 

If  the  question  were  asked  of  the  people  of  this  town, 
to  whom  it  is  most  indebted  for  the  improvements  made 
during  the  past  few  years,  all  as  one  would  give  the  name 
of  your  philanthropist,  SAMUEL  TYLER. 

I  have  heard  him  say  that  it  had  been  his  habit  from 
boyhood  to  select  the  wisest  and  best  men  he  knew  as 
models.  In  his  turn  he  became  a  worthy  model  for  others. 
Hard  as  he  worked  for  his  material  possessions,  he  strove 
even  harder  for  a  true  manhood.  If  at  any  time  he  had 
suspected  that  he  was  esteemed  chiefly  on  account  of  his 
wealth  or  social  position,  it  would  have  caused  him  keen 
chagrin. 

It  was  much  to  have  in  town,  so  many  years,  a  man 
conspicuous  for  honesty  and  sincerity,  whose  word  was 


never  doubted,  who  was  superior  to  deception,  whose  prin- 
ciples were  as  fixed  as  his  own  mountains.  Perhaps  one  of 
the  strongest  motives  which  persuaded  him  to  go  to  an 
unknown  land,  was  that  he  might  be  able  to  meet  the 
demands  out-standing  against  him,  and  pay,  as  he  did,  the 
first  moment  his  means  allowed,  principal  and  interest. 

We  can  well  understand  what  those  who  knew  him  in 
South  America  assure  us  of,  that  his  word  came  to  be 
another  name  for  truth,  among  the  natives,  who  were 
accustomed  to  assert  of  this  or  that  which  they  reported  to 
be  true,  "  it  is  so,  for  Mr.  TYLER  says  it  is  so." 

His  integrity 

"  stood  the  test  of  fortune, 
Like  purest  gold,  that,  tortured  in  the  furnace, 
Comes  out  more  bright,  and  brings  forth  all  its  weight." 

One  could  as  easily  imagine  George  Washington  taking  the 
place  of  Benedict  Arnold,  as  SAMUEL  TYLER  turning  traitor 
to  his  sense  of  right. 

His  fidelity  to  his  convictions  appeared  in  his  charities. 
When  Providence  crowned  his  hazardous  undertakings  with 
success,  he  would  seem  to  have  regarded  himself  as  elected 
an  almoner  of  the  divine  bounty  ;  the  property  he  had  been 
enabled  to  accumulate,  as  placed  in  his  hands  to  be  dispensed 
according  to  his  best  judgment.  Holding,  thus,  his  wealth 
in  trust,  it  was  a  perplexing  problem  to  him,  how  most 
judiciously  to  distribute  it ;  and  he  surveyed  all  fields  that 
he  might  find  in  what  soil  the  scattered  seed  should  promise 
the  most  abundant  harvest. 

The  fountain  of  benevolence  was  full,  and  no  lack  of 
appreciation,  no  ingratitude,  could  long  keep  in  check  its 
out-flowing  tide.  Having  himself  tasted  the  cup  of  sorrow, 
he  knew  how  to  sympathize  with  the  afflicted.  Having 
known  the  burden  of  poverty,  he  could  be  counted  among 
the  righteous  who  "  consider  the  cause  of  the  poor."  While 
he  felt  all  the  antagonism  of  an  active,  forceful  nature, 
toward  thriftlessness  and  improvidence,  he  could  not  for- 
bear relieving  the  want  which  was  their  natural  result. 


The  reverence  for  law,  so  apparent  in  him,  developed, 
no  doubt,  by  years  of  severe  discipline,  gave  him  the 
appearance,  at  times,  of  exaggerating  the  importance  of  self- 
help  in  comparison  with  special  divine  aid.  And  he  might 
not  have  prayed,  like  Elijah  on  Carmel,  that  God  would, 
without  human  means,  consume  the  sacrifice  ;  but  he  would, 
like  the  same  prophet,  have  stretched  himself  on  the  little 
son  of  the  widow,  that  he  might  second  the  divine  power 
in  warming  the  child  to  life. 

He  accepted  the  inspired  definition  of  pure  religion  and 
undefiled  before  God  and  the  Father ;  but,  while  it  was  his 
honest  intention  to  "  prove  all  things  "  and  "  hold  fast  that 
which  is  good,"  mere  traditions,  precedents,  old  or  new, 
creeds,  ancient  or  modern,  were  not,  with  him,  a  final 
authority.  He  wished  to  see  all  who  loved  mercy,  did 
justly,  and  walked  humbly  with  God,  joining  in  worship, 
and  uniting,  as  brethren,  in  a  persevering  endeavor  to  make 
the  world  wiser  and  better. 

When  he  proposed  to  convey  this  church,  in  legal  form, 
to  a  corporate  body,  he  used  this  language  :  "  My  only 
desire  and  intention,  in  doing  this,  is,  that  the  house  may  be 
occupied,  and  the  privileges  which  it  affords  to  all  be 
improved.  I  trust  that  you,  in  your  wisdom,  may  manage 
all  matters  relating  to  the  house  in  such  a  manner  that  all 
the  people  in  this  vicinity  may  feel  that  they  have  the  right 
and  privilege,  in  common  with  you,  to  occupy  the  house  on 
all  proper  times  and  occasions,  and  that  it  is,  and  shall  be, 
free  to  all  who  will  go  there  and  occupy  the  same  in  common 
with  you." 

Had  he  been  asked  his  creed,  he  might  have  replied  in 
the  language  of  St.  James,  "  I  will  show  you  my  faith  by 
my  works."  In  the  words  of  the  venerable  Whittier,  whose 
life  is  as  benevolent,  and  whose  sympathies  are  as  broad  as 
were  his  own,  he  could  say, 

"  0  Lord  and  Master  of  us  all, 

Whate'er  our  name  or  sign, 
We  own  thy  sway,  we  hear  thy  call, 

We  test  our  lives  by  thine." 


(  11  ) 

We  a*re  aware  that  we  shall  violate  a  rule  by  which 
himself  was  governed,  if,  while  we  consider  his  excellences, 
we  lose  sight  of  what  he  regarded  as  his  grave  faults.  He 
inherited  a  somewhat  excitable  temperament,  which  was  the 
source  of  more  annoyance  to  himself  than  to  any  one  else. 
He  was  accustomed  to  compare  his  physical  system  to  an 
engine,  declaring  that  it  required  all  his  skill  and  attention 
as  an  engineer  to  control  and  direct  it.  It  was  riot  singular 
if,  sometimes,  on  life's  tempestuous  voyage,  the  fire  kindled, 
the  pressure  great,  he  was  driven  temporarily  from  the  track 
marked  out  for  himself;  if  he  was  betrayed  into  some  act 
or  expression  which  he  disapproved ;  but  the  undue  ardor 
was  of  short  continuance,  and  then  he  hastened  to  make 
reparation.  If  his  quick  feelings  were  the  gales  which 
impelled  him  from  the  direction  he  wished  to  take,  his 
sensitive  conscience  was  the  needle  which  immediately 
pointed  him  back  to  his  course. 

But  he  has  gone  from  us.  We  shall  look  in  vain  for  the 
venerable  form  whose  presence  seemed  to  shed  a  certain 
worth  and  dignity  upon  the  community.  He  will  come  to 
us  no  more  ;  but  he  has  left  a  monument  to  himself. 

Sir  Christopher  Wren,  the  architect  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
in  London,  was  buried  in  a  vault  under  the  edifice  he  had 
built,  and  on  a  black  marble  slab  was  the  inscription,  "  If 
you  seek  my  monument,  look  around  you."  So  have  we 
only  to  look  around  us  to  see  SAMUEL  TYLER'S  monument. 
This  house  is  his  monument. 

Better  educational  facilities,  and  numberless  improve- 
ments among  us,  are  his  monument. 

In  the  deeper  admiration  which  he  inspired  in  us  for 
self-reliance,  for  industry,  for  enterprise,  for  integrity,  for 
benevolence — for  all  manly  virtues — is  found  his  monument. 

And  so  will  the  memory  of  himself,  as  he  was,  be  his 
fittest  and  most  enduring  monument. 


UCSB  LIBRARY 


RESOLUTIONS. 


Whereas,  As  citizens  of  the  town  and  vicinity  of  Brownfield,  we 
have  longjaeen  familiar  with  the  noble  life  of  the  late  Hon.  SAMUEL 
TYLER. 

Whereas,  As  a  community  we  have  been  recipients  of  his  nu- 
merous and  generous  public  and  private  benefactions. 

Resolved,  That  we  wish  to  express  on  this  occasion  our  warm 
appreciation  of  his  many  virtues  as  a  man,  a  townsman,  a  neighbor, 
and  fellow-citizen. 

Resolved,  That  we  have  known  him  as  a  man  whom  people  of  all 
sects,  parties,  and  classes  delighted  to  honor. 

Resolved,  That  we  shall  long  hold  in  affectionate  remembrance 
his  life  and  labors  of  love. 

"He  rests  with  the  immortals,  his  journey  has  been  long; 
For  him  no  wail  of  sorrow,  but  paean  full  and  strong; 
So  well  and  bravely  has  he  done  the  work  he  found  to  do — 
To  justice,  freedom,  duty,  God,  and  man,  forever  true." 

Resolved,  That  no  less  do  we  appreciate,  honor,  and  cherish  the 
memory  of  her  who  was  his  companion  in  labors  of  charity,  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  S.  Tyler,  who  preceded  her  honored  husband  but  a  few 
months  to  her  reward. 

J.  L.  FRINK,  Rec.  Sec. 


A     000  61 1  272     6 


